After Motivista, a schizophrenia app for the social side of the illness
Earlier this month, the FDA cleared Motivista, the first prescription app for the negative symptoms of schizophrenia. This week brought a sign it won’t be the last.
In Korea, Bukwang Pharmaceutical, Samsung Medical Center and BlueSignum agreed to develop Affectus, software that trains social cognition: reading faces, picking up on tone, understanding what someone else might be thinking. Schizophrenia often hits these skills hard, and medication rarely brings them back.
What caregivers should know: Affectus is early. An exploratory trial is underway at Samsung Medical Center, and no results or approval timeline have been announced. It isn’t available anywhere yet.
Why it still matters: For many families, the hardest part isn’t the hallucinations. It’s watching someone you love struggle to reconnect with friends, coworkers, even family at the dinner table. Now there are two prescription-grade efforts aimed at exactly that: Motivista targets motivation, and Affectus targets social connection. Researchers are paying attention too, with a 2026 review of digital social cognition training and a small VR study that found bigger gains in emotion recognition than standard training.
The partner behind the software is worth a look. BlueSignum already makes Harukong, a mood-tracking app with more than 10 million downloads, most of its revenue from outside Korea.
What you can do now: If social withdrawal is the struggle in your home, ask your loved one’s care team which social skills or social cognition programs are available today, in person or online. You don’t have to wait for an app.
